(2:03:06) Alice – Yeah, we have a picture taken from up there. We don’t know where it’s at now. That’s when what’s his name’s brother was there. He went up on that rock and took the picture and sent us a copy of it. It’s looking down on the old Healy Creek yard. That was taken from where Bill Peyto’s old cabin used to be. His cabin wasn’t still there was it?
(2:03:35) Ole – Pieces of it anyway.
(2:03:38) Alice – And his fence was there. He had tin cans on wire all around there.
(2:03:45) Ole – Part of the barn was there. The fireplace was there.
(2:03:55) Alice – We went up there lots of times. It was a nice little walk up there.
(2:04:07) Ole – Oh yah, (he misses being a warden and the warden life).
(2:04:12) Alice – Oh, yeah. It was a good life. I think it was. We had good friends. We made some terrific friends. We never moved to a park where there wasn’t somebody we knew from a park that we’d been in. There was always somebody there that we knew. We made some terrific friends and they weren’t all wardens. Like we just lost this one couple. They were our neighbours at Revelstoke. He was maintenance…Him and his wife, they are both gone now. We went on a few trips with them. If they came this way they always stayed with us. If we went down to Chilliwack we always stayed with them…They were such great friends. We moved to Revelstoke and we got in about 7:00 or 7:30 at night…We hadn’t had supper. We hadn’t checked into our motel and we were just so tired. We stopped at the house because it came first. Just to see if the mover was there because he had left earlier. Nothing was there. Here the door bell rings and here’s Ken. “Would you like to come over for a cup of coffee?” We said, “Could we take a rain check?” We said, “We’ve just come, we haven’t checked in, we haven’t had no supper.” So fine. That was the type of people they were. One night they went to see this show, Paint Your Wagon with what’s his name? Lee Marvin. They thought it was so funny. There was nothing to do that we had to go. Well the thing is Robert and the bigger kids were all on school projects and of course we had Larry and we couldn’t leave him alone. So Ken said to us, “I’ll come over and babysit.” So he comes over and babysits Larry so we could go to the show. But that’s the type of people they were. They sure were a bunch of great people.
(2:06:48) Ole – Yep, (the people are a lasting memory of the warden service).
(2:06:53) Alice – Very much so. You know there’s getting to be so few left now. It is a little scary. Well we are getting there too. But to think that we are still here and there are so many that are gone.
(2:08:17) Ole – Larry Gilmar came out when Bill was my assistant. Bill Gilmar is older than Larry by ten or 15 years anyway. He came out to visit Bill and Bill took him up to Egypt Lake. Larry was only nine years old. Ross came out and Mickey was there breaking horses. So one was staying down with Mickey and one was staying with Bill at Healy Creek. He (Mickey) ended up at the ranch (Ya-Ha-Tinda). He was always the packer and the horse breaker. Bill and I used to get all the colts. Mickey would coach Bill and finish them off. Mickey was the older brother. Larry’s dad was a mine boss at Blairmore.
(2:10:27) Ole – It was quite a life. But I can’t just pick out anything in it. Little things, yeah. But you know I never been much for writing but I got pushed into it you know. My first letter came back three times when I was in Jasper. They wouldn’t pass it at all. It came back from the Chief Warden and Superintendent. It had to be a certain form and I wasn’t used to writing that way. Clarence Wilkins got me a bunch of letters that were written from the parks people. It gave me a sample. But I finally got so that I was just writing them so fast it wasn’t even funny. Oh god yes (there was a lot of paper work). Don Dumpleton tells me that if I hadn’t been in Jasper, he’d have went under. He just handed it all to me. But I loved Jasper. They had a system there. Mickey had a system there. The Chief Warden went on boundary this year, like the north boundary all the way around Smokey and Mount Robson starting at Devona going all the way up the Snake Indian to Willow Creek into Blue Creek then over to Smokey and then down. And the Assistant Chief, he went the other way. I’d start out from Camp Parker, down the Brazeau up over Cairn Pass, down the Rocky and out Medicine Lake. One was a two week trip and one was a ten day trip. On those trips and I thought it was a hell of a good thing, you took the inventory of the cabins. What was in there. You know we inspected the cabins, this and that. Judged the wardens work and what not. I remember I come off the Smokey first trip out and Mickey asked me, “How many wardens we got?” I said, “Well, one.” He said, “Why do you say one?” I said, “Number one, is too selfish. He’s just looking for something higher. Number two never does anything to his trails at all. Just cuts the windfall out that he can’t jump. Number three just thinks of himself and number four is the one.” Old Mickey said, “Well he’s got something to show me. I don’t believe he’s that good of a guy.” So the next year he went on it and said, ‘By God you’re right!” Out of them four. I’ve only seen one since. He ended up quite high up in central region. A good guy.
(2:17:03) Ole – When Frank Burstrom was carving all those nice badges you know. I dearly wanted one. He was at Pacific Rim. You see that (Ole lifts up the tail of a wooden carving of a horses rear and points to the badge underneath). That’s my badge and there’s nothing on that thing see. They sent it out from regional office with a letter saying we’d like your opinion on this for a bilingual badge. I took one look at it and it’s got nothing on it. A beaver with number 20, that’s my number. So Gord McLean walked in the office door, out at Pacific Rim and I threw the dam thing. He said, “You don’t want that?” I said, “Hell, no. Look at this. Read it.” So he read the letter and I said, “I want to answer it. You don’t want it do you?” “Oh, no” he said, “that’s terrible.” I said, “I don’t want it either, I wouldn’t even put it on a horse’s ass!” Guess what I got? Frank Burstrom carved that horse. It’s a heck of a good carving…Anyway I asked Frank at the do (Ole’s retirement party) we called it a do you know. I said, “I always wanted one of them badges.” “Well” he said, “You’re the only one that got the horse’s ass!”
(2:19:50) Ole – When they announced the packing (at the Warden Centennial) I got out there and it was Frank and one of the girls (doing) the packing demonstration. And he was throwing that box at the horse and that horse never even blinked. That wasn’t one of my pack horses! God that horse was well broke. Must have been an old horse…Knowing Frank, he was good at packing because his granddad was a warden. Alfie’s dad, Frank Burstrom (senior). He spent all his service in Jasper old Frank. A lot of them did.
(2:20:57) Ole – They never put the dam stove on for the roast (at Ole’s retirement do in Kootenay).
(2:21:00) Alice – Then he tried to cover it up with some gravy. Jeez, the meat was just terrible. Raw meat, so they turned the lights down low, thinking you were so dumb you wouldn’t notice. Had to talk about something I guess.
(2:21:33) Alice – There are so many (lasting memories about the warden life). I don’t think we could have had a better life really.
(2:21:46) Ole – No, I don’t think so. A lot of variety.
(2:21:53) Alice – That’s what makes it interesting. You know it’s funny with the kids, like our two boys there. They really enjoyed that due in Banff there. Because they ran into kids who are grown up just the same as they are now. Like Terry Skjonsberg, I couldn’t get over how much he looks likes his dad. I just looked up and I saw him coming and of course he was winding his way amongst the chairs there and he just kept coming. Terry was always so quiet. I drove them kids to school. Betty and I used to take turns which was neat because you didn’t have to do it all the time. She had one week and I had one week. I used to get a break because Ed (Carleton who was at Castle Mountain with his wife Dorothy and sons, Micheal, Terry and Brian) used to bring down the boys as far as Healy Creek and I would take them into town. And Dorothy used to drive too. Then they finally got a school bus.
(2:23:15) Ole – Before that Ernie Young had the district and he pretty near went nuts because Greta Meiser at Marble Canyon used to drive her kids all the way into Banff. Take them in the morning and go get them at night. She had a Volkswagen and she never knew the road conditions. She just drove at one speed. How that girl never got killed I don’t know. One speed… Go! The Skjonsberg’s were my assistant. They were at Healy Creek. They only had six miles to go.
(2:24:07) Alice – I know we used to have to keep track of the miles because we got paid for them.
(2:24:17) Ole – Ernie used to make patrol just to see if she (Greta) was doing okay. He’d sneak close into town, turn around and come back. Twice a day, he was worried. He was a good guy.
(2:24:38) Alice – You know how kids are. They were in the back of the car scrapping and Greta got so mad that she said, “That’s it, you get out. You can walk home!” And she left them. Then she went up around the corner and she just waited for a while and finally she went back and she said, “Here come both kids bawling their eyes out.” And she said, “They smartened up after that.”
Ole Hermanrude passed away at the age of 86 years on September 6th, 2012. Alice followed 7 years later on April 16, 2019 at the age of 89 years.
